This invention relates generally to social networking systems, and in particular to presenting interactions with content items in a social networking system in real time.
Social networking systems allow users to connect and interact with each other. In particular, many social networking systems allow users to add and interact with content items generated by other users of the social networking system. For example, users can interact with content on a social networking system by reacting to the content (e.g., “liking” the content item, “loving” the content item, indicating they think a content item is funny), adding additional content to the content item (e.g., posting a “comment” on the content item), and sharing the content item with other users of the social networking system.
Interactions with content items are often presented so that users can see how other users have interacted with the content. However, conventional social networking systems typically fail to notify users of new interactions with a content item in a timely manner. Thus, interactions with other users through interactions with a content item are not typically performed in real-time. Additionally, if a user is viewing the content item through a page associated with the content item, the user is typically unaware of new interactions with the content item because the user may be viewing a portion of the content item page that does not display the interaction. Thus, interacting real-time with other users through a content item is difficult for a user unless the user happens to be viewing the interaction at the time it is performed.